The president of the Foundation invites citizens to click on the airline’s website: € 90,000 at stake for the restitution
POSSAGNO. Vittorio Sgarbi made his choice and it could not be otherwise: he put his face in favor of restoration of the Antonio Canova Gypsotheca Museum of Possagno, dedicated to the great sculptor.
The art critic always on the “piece” and since the pandemic broke out even more “social” than before, takes part in the Antonio Canova Gypsotheca Museum in Possagno which houses the sculptor’s artistic legacy, considered the largest of the neoclassical period and invites everyone, through posts and videos, to support him and vote for the jewel of the Marca.
On background the # Volotea4Veneto contest, the initiative launched by the Spanish low cost airline, in the field to restore a Venetian monument.
There are 4 projects in the running all different, but the lowest common denominator is the strong link with the territory: the digitization of some of the books and parchments kept in the Chapter Library of Verona, the creation of tactile and 3D paths of some iconic monuments promoted by Verona For All. And the restoration of the labyrinth and its turret in the park of Villa Pisani National Museum.
And then comes the “new Phidias”: the 90 thousand euros up for grabs will be used to restore 34 terracotta sketches by the artist and to secure 3 plaster models damaged during the First World War. However, people’s preferences for the Gypsoteca Museum. The monument that has collected the highest number of votes will receive the support of Volotea, the voters will participate in the drawing of a voucher that gives away one year of flights with the company.
For Sgarbi there is no history, with all due respect to the other three sites. «This is a competition linked to the restart of tourism» he explains «Volotea indicates four places of the heart that are the motivation for leaving a foreign country, winning a ticket and coming to Veneto. I have nothing against other wonderful monuments but being president of the Possagno Museum Foundation, and with the second centenary of the artist’s death in perspective, I can’t move for anyone else».
Not only: “Canova is a more universal attraction than all the others at stake, even more than the villa on the Brenta. He is the last great Western sculptor in the wake of Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo, and is at the center of the perfect storm, the celebrations of 2022: these seem to me to be good reasons, for anyone, to support him and see a unique place in the world, a piece of Rome transported to Possagno where the wonderful temple was built. It is amazing that there is real competition with other sites. There is no match ». Finally: «I hope that the match will be truly impartial, without any intervention from“ above ”that can guide one side or the other». Is the money enough? “With almost 100,000 euros you can do many things”.
The critic reveals that he has a large exhibition in store in Possagno in view of the second centenary of Canova’s death. Finally, the ace in the hole, which bears the name of none other than Michelangelo Merisi: «H.or ready the preparation of an exhibition that brings together La Maddalena by Canova and that by Caravaggio, coming straight from a private collection in London. The set-up is already there, today I will have a meeting with the Minister of Tourism, I am waiting for the possibility to move to promote it ”. –